Eating Disorders - OA for February

[MajestyJo]

Friday, February 7, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

Abstinence Is Freedom

In the beginning, when we first practice abstinence, we may look at it as restriction, limitation, or denial. We don't like the word, we don't like giving up our favorite foods, we don't like measuring and weighing and writing down menus. We sometimes decide to abstain grudgingly, considering it punishment for past indulgences and bitter medicine for our disease.

Let's remember that what we are giving up is fat, lethargy, and the uncontrolled craving for more and more. Not to abstain is to remain a slave to compulsive overeating. Before OA, we were not free. We were prisoners of our compulsion.

Abstinence is not negative denial. It is positive freedom from the obsession with food and the debilitating effects of overeating. Through abstinence we become free to live active, interesting, satisfying lives. We are able to work and love and serve and enjoy in ways, which were unknown to us before.

When we choose to abstain, we choose freedom.

Thank you, Lord, for freedom.